


Severance

by kiath



Category: Lord of the Rings RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-06-03
Updated: 2008-06-03
Packaged: 2017-10-29 09:07:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/318167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiath/pseuds/kiath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A private investigator is hired to save money in a potentially costly divorce.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Severance

**Author's Note:**

> _Thanks to Kyuuketsukirui for the beta._

The car glides smoothly along the curb. Dominic pulls up the hand brake, lets go of the clutch and puts the gear shift into neutral.

This is definitely the one: 2493 Beech Avenue. It looks innocuous enough, not that he expected anything out of the ordinary; he was promised a discreet service, after all. His immature side is maybe a little disappointed that the address he was given over the phone didn't lead to a dingy alley and a frosted door, just like in the films.

Dominic is already ten minutes late for his appointment, but he sits and stares out of the car window for a while longer regardless. Is this really necessary? Why can't he just confront her? What if he's right? What if - heaven forbid - he's actually wrong? It doesn't bear thinking about. No, this time he needs to be right.

When he finally rings the bell, Dominic is more than a little taken aback when a middle-aged woman answers the door, smiling, drying her hands on a tea towel.

"Can I help you?"

"I, uh..." Dominic looks down at the scrap of paper in his hand and then back up at the woman. "I'm looking for Elijah? Maybe I have the wrong address-"

"Oh no," she protests, smiling again. "You're in the right place. Come in."

Dominic follows her into the hallway, jumping a little when she turns and hollers up the stairs.

"El-i-jah, there's someone here to see you!"

A voice floats back down to the hallway. "Send him up, Mom!"

Mom? Dominic realises his self-doubt in the car was for good reason; he's made a big mistake. "Look, I think I'm in the wrong place..."

"Second door on the right, just opposite the bathroom," Elijah's mother replies. "Can I get you a drink?"

"I, ah. No. Thank you. But I-"

She smiles. "Second on the right."

She's gone before Dominic's had a chance to finish his protest, leaving him stood in the hallway like a total twat. There's a cuckoo clock ticking just behind his head, and it chimes happily, signalling a quarter past the hour. He glances over his shoulder. He's really late.

Placing one hand on the front door handle, Dominic twists till it clicks open. This was definitely a mistake.

"Are you coming up or not?"

The man - for fuck's sake, Elijah? - staring down from the top of the stairs looks pissed off. He also looks young enough to still be living with his mother. Bollocks. A definite mistake. Despite it all, in the heat of Elijah's glare Dominic feels like a naughty schoolboy caught sneaking out during playtime. "I. Hm. I think I've got the wrong place..."

"You're already fifteen minutes late and I have another client at five. I'm charging you for the time you've wasted so far, you know," Elijah snaps before he turns and disappears.

Dominic swallows down his doubts, closes the door and follows him.

*

Elijah looks at the photograph Dominic has handed him. Open and shut case, really - beautiful girl, less than attractive rich guy... _of course she married you for your money, you fucking idiot._

"We have a pre-nuptial agreement, you see... if we divorce before our fifth anniversary, she gets nothing. But it depends on fidelity."

" _Her_ fidelity, I assume?" Elijah can't help but be sarcastic. It's always about the women, poor bitches.

Dominic looks confused for a second, catches on and chuckles. "Ah, no. It's a two-way thing."

"I see."

The woman in the picture smiles back at Elijah. _Sorry, darlin'_ , he thinks, _the jig is up._

*

It's not that Dominic wants to be right - he loves her, in his own way. He certainly cares for her, anyway, and they've had some good times together, for sure. But she realised soon enough he wouldn't be able to fulfil all of his husbandly duties. How could she not have? Dominic hated himself for brushing off her advances. He'd tried so hard. He _wanted_ to want her. He'd even convinced himself that she'd straightened him out, given that they'd fallen into bed with each other over and over before the marriage.

Never mind that his mind drifted when she sucked him off, his hand in her cropped hair and his imagination elsewhere. Never mind the tiny stabs of realisation and disappointment when he woke in the morning to find _her_ hand inside his underwear and not some other figment of his subconscious imagination. He still got hard, and that's what mattered, right?

Elijah's smiling at the photograph in a way that makes Dominic even more nervous. He can't believe he's actually going into business with this skinny mummy's boy. He wanted a professional, not a bedroom operation.

"She's good looking," Elijah says, dropping the photograph onto his desk. He doesn't add to his statement and Dominic doesn't know what to say other than, "Yes."

"Not quite your thing, though, right?"

Elijah winks at Dominic and chuckles to himself. Without waiting for answer, he turns and walks to the window, pushing open the pane and wedging a thick, well-read book in the gap.

"What?"

"Nothing. Ignore me." Elijah lights a cigarette and blows the smoke out of the window. "I just speak as I find."

"You haven't found anything yet," Dominic retorts, standing up and making it clear how badly he wants to leave.

Elijah just smiles again. "I will."

*

Elijah's fine with the sitting. He's equally fine with the waiting. He enjoys the hunt and he has endless patience. Still, he can't help but wish his target would hurry up and just do something suspicious already. It's getting late and the deceptively blue skies of the day gave way to the sharp evening chill a long while back. And his ass went to sleep hours ago.

He feels sorry for her. He feels sorry for all his assignments, what with the mistrust and deception. Why can't people be _honest_ with one another? Elijah made a promise to himself a long time ago that when he met The One he'd be nothing but honest when it came to his feelings.

Elijah yawns and snuggles a little more into his blanket. He almost has enough money to replace his tin can of a car, and once he's paid for this case he'll probably even have enough for one with decent air conditioning. No more freezing his butt off, no way.

The sudden rapping on the window gives Elijah such a shock he nearly shits his pants. He realises with disappointment that she's there, the wife, staring in the window, just inches from his face. Crap. There goes the new car with the AC...

"Why have you been following me?"

Elijah furrows his forehead and widens his eyes. He could still salvage this, if he's smart. It wouldn't be the first time he's been caught, after all. "I don't know what you mean, ma'am. I'm just waiting for my girl-"

"Give it a rest, kid. Dominic sent you, didn't he?"

Elijah hesitates, sighs. He knows when to fake it, and he sure knows when to quit acting. "Yeah."

She just smiles.

*

Dominic's hands are warm. His palms are pressed to the sides of a brightly coloured mug, handed to him by Elijah's mother. The tea is sweet and milky. It's disgusting, but Dominic is nothing if not polite. He'll drink the lot of it, sensitive teeth and sensitive stomach be damned.

"Elijah will be home soon," she says with a smile. "Sometimes his classes run over."

"He's still at school?" Dominic asks, realising it shouldn't be a surprise, considering Elijah's living arrangements.

Elijah's mother nods. "College, yes. He's studying at UCLA; he's going to be a lawyer some day, you know." She beams, and the pride is shining out of her; Dominic can't help but smile back.

When he eventually arrives home, Elijah is more than a little ruffled. He apologises swiftly and takes Dominic upstairs to his bedroom, swearing lightly when he realises he's left it in somewhat of a state. Dominic watches him hastily pull the quilt straight and shove discarded underwear into a laundry basket and wonders (not for the first, or even fifth, time) what possessed him to actually go ahead with hiring this one.

"I have the pictures," Elijah says, finally sitting down and gesturing at Dominic to take a seat, too. There's only the edge of the bed. "But they're still getting developed. That's why I was so late, I was meant to be meeting him on campus. But..." Elijah doesn't offer more of an explanation than that, just shrugs.

"You don't use a digital camera?" Dominic asks. "I was expecting digital files."

"Old school methods, I much prefer them." Elijah shrugs again. "Sorry. You'll have them soon."

Dominic scowls. He may have the shots the divorce lawyers need in theory, but he's less than impressed at Elijah wasting his time. "Why didn't you call me and let me know? I drove all this way for nothing."

"Because I wanted to see you."

Elijah doesn't expand on his statement, just smiles that self-assured smile that makes Dominic instantly nervous, and crosses the room to take a seat beside Dominic on the bed. Dominic stares at him in disbelief, stares at the hand running over his thigh in even more surprise. "I, aah. Um. No, I think-"

"Don't think," Elijah murmurs. "C'mon... Just, here, let me." His hand slides up Dominic's thigh, just a little higher, just a little too high. Dominic wants to move, knows he should get out of there and fuck the pictures, but _God_ , it's been such a long time since he's let anyone-

He leaves an hour later. When he looks back at the house from the safety of his car, he sees Elijah looking right back at him from the bedroom window. Dominic raises his hand in a pathetic little wave he instantly regrets.

Elijah just smiles.

*

Elijah pulls up to the curb and turns the key. The motor purrs happily as it dies, a divine noise that never fails to make his heart skip a beat. When Elijah opens the door, the dull, thick heat of the outside world hits him. Thanks to his much coveted air conditioning, sticky, sweaty, uncomfortable journeys are a thing of the past.

His apartment is empty and quiet and cool and clean. There's no cuckoo clock ticking in the hallway, and the mail on the mat is all for him. Elijah sheds his clothes as he walks through the house and towards the bathroom, brazenly naked just because he can be.

Sometimes he misses the old home comforts - his mother's cooking, the clean clothes, that kind of thing. But really, is there anything better than independence?

The money has almost run out, but that's okay. He put aside enough for law school, and he owns the car outright. Dominic's wife was really rather generous with her offer, and Elijah was smart enough not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Likewise, Dominic was rather keen to ensure his own little secret never made it to the divorce courts. Elijah sent him a copy of the film he'd secretly made of the pair of them, naturally. It helped with the bargaining.

The CD he'd copied the film onto cost Elijah a few cents, and the film itself just a little naked enthusiasm. The naked enthusiasm cost Dominic a fair amount more, but still significantly less than _she_ would have taken had she known. "Are you happy now?" Dominic hissed the day he signed the deeds on Elijah's apartment. "Have you got what you wanted?"

"Oh yes. It was nice doing business with you, Mr. Monaghan. Please do recommend me to a friend."

"Fucking _cunt_."

Elijah just smiled and hung up the phone.


End file.
